Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, secretary general of the Palestinian National Initiative said today that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal in a press conference at the White House is nothing but a recipe to consolidate a system of apartheid with two systems of laws – one for Palestinians and one for Jewish Israelis – and will result in complete domination of the lives of the Palestinian people.

"This apartheid system should not be confused with a one-state solution. One democratic state solution means a state of all its citizens with full democratic rights and complete equality between Palestinian Muslims and Christians and the Jewish people.

A fully democratic one-state cannot be a Jewish state. A one-state solution would mean that the state is democratic with equal rights for all its people.

Netanyahu’s preconditions for peace are totally unacceptable. Palestinians have already recognised Israel since 1993. It is Israel that still refuses to recognise a Palestinian state.

Israeli security domination of the land of the Palestinian state would mean that it is not a sovereign state.

The proposal means that he wants to continue the occupation of the Palestinian people, which is already the longest occupation in modern history.

Unfortunately, yesterday’s press conference will be described by historians as the day when Israel was officially declared an apartheid state that is much worse than the previous apartheid system in South Africa."